The first red list of native ferns and flowering plants since 1999 is now available as a joint project by Austria’s outdoor botanists. It lists 66 species that are extinct – and 235 that are threatened with extinction. What are the reasons for the sharp decline?
Do you know arnica, the gorgeous yellow flowering meadow plant? In herbal medicine, it is considered a disinfectant. “I collected them as a child on the meadows of my grandparents in the Carinthian low mountain range, at an altitude of 1000 meters,” says the botanist Luise Schratt-Ehrendorfer. The flowers were soaked in alcohol, and the tincture was applied with a cotton swab, “when my knees were bleeding,” she recalls. For 30 or 40 years there has been no arnica on the meadows of that time, and the species is now threatened with extinction in many places where it grows, only in high alpine areas it is still not endangered.
Schratt-Ehrendorfer collected this together with numerous contributors from Austria and neighboring countries: for the first red list of ferns and flowering plants in Austria since 1999. 66 species – two percent of the native flora – are now extinct or missing, 235 species from extinction threatened. The Red List is available as an online publication (https://tinyurl.com/4ppksa9a) and as a book, which can be obtained free of charge from the concierge of the Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research at the University of Vienna can be picked up at Rennweg 14. The project was funded by the Ministry of Agriculture and the EU.
What is remarkable regarding the study for Schratt-Ehrendorfer, who has been working as a botanist for over 40 years? “The fact that formerly very common plant species in rough meadows are declining very sharply, whether meadow daisies, meadow bellflowers or meadow sage.” The reason for this is the intensification of meadow management. Picking a colorful bouquet of flowers is no longer possible in many places today.
Many different plants grow in “poor”, i.e. nutrient-poor locations in particular, and diversity is high there, says Schratt-Ehrendorfer: “Before humans greatly increased the nutrient supply in the environment through various activities, plants lived under nutrient-poor conditions.” Exceptions represented meadows or wild camps, where wild animals drop their dung. “Only at these nutrient-rich locations did nutrient indicators such as the stinging nettle occur in the undisturbed natural landscape.” Nutrient indicators are often tall and overgrow the lower plants of poor locations.
Nutrients also come with the wind
But where does today’s high nutrient content come from? Schratt-Ehrendorfer explains that primarily from industrial emissions and fertilizers that are spread on meadows and fields, but also spread through the air. “The wind blows nutrients from intensively used agricultural areas such as the Marchfeld and deposits them in the Hainburg Mountains”, a strictly protected hilly limestone landscape with dry grassland. That is why fertilized meadow species are now on the rise, even in nature reserves that are not allowed to be fertilized.
Global warming is another risk factor. “It’s an interesting story regarding the drying out in the lowlands,” says Schratt-Ehrendorfer. “One would think that as a result fewer nutrients would be available. After all, plants cannot bite off them, they can only absorb substances that are dissolved in water.” However, the increasing supply of nutrients continues to have a growth-promoting effect on nutrient indicators that threaten biodiversity.
According to Schratt-Ehrendorfer, if the decline in biodiversity in Austria is to at least slow down, something would have to happen: “The inadequate protection of the native flora is due to the incomplete legislation, but also to the sparse implementation of existing laws and a lack of knowledge regarding the occurrence of Red List -Species at certain growth sites.” In any case, the present volume can make a significant contribution to this.
It is also a catalog of all 3462 domestic and naturalized ferns and flowering plants. A comprehensive table shows, among other things, the endangerment of all species in Austria’s natural areas. It was not a matter of course that this was possible in such detail: “It is a joint project of experts in Austrian flora,” says Schratt-Ehrendorfer, “including, by the way, numerous amateurs from a wide variety of professions who are excellent outdoor botanists.”
New Released
L. Schratt-Ehrendorfer et al.
“Red List of
ferns and flowering plants”
Series Stapfia
Upper Austria State Museum
362 pages
Open Access